Author: RampHead
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I don’t have many bottles of ramp seasoning left and once it is gone it will be gone until late next spring. If you’ve been holding off on buying some, I would suggest you buy it now as my stock has dwindled to only a few and it won’t last long.

I’m New To Ramps. What Are They?

Ramps are nourishing harbingers of spring, breaking through lingering snow and ice. A foraged delicacy, their leaves, stalk and bulb are edible. They are sweetish with a slight pungency. A perennial wild onion with a pungent garlic odor with leek/onion flavor, it is found in Eastern North America from South Carolina to Canada. Also known as wild leek, wood leek, spring onion, wild garlic.

The plant has broad smooth light green 10” long leaves often with a hint of deep purple or burgundy on the lower stems. It has a scallion like stalk producing a flower and the bulb measures half an inch round. Plant leaves wither as the seed stalk develops, flowering in June-July. The preferred habitat is sandy, loamy moist soil under the woodlands canopy. Growing in dense colonies they can be found near streams and under trees. (Beech, Sugar Maple, Birch, Poplar, Hickory, Oak, Linden and Buckeye).

Raw or cooked in soups, pesto, accompanying egg dishes and sauteed with seasonal foraged wild greens, morels and April’s Shad harvest. After winter months with few fresh greens available this ingredient brings forth earthy flavors and revitalizes the palate. Thoreau referred to eating ramps as a “tonic of the wilderness.”

Ramps have been embraced by the Appalachian Mountain region. West Virginia is considered the heart of ramp country, where one will find numerous festivals celebrating the harvest.

What About That Name?

In Old English, the plant (although a slightly different one, since the ramp you’re likely to run into in the U.S. is a different species of wild leek) was a hramsa, which is similar to the word in Old German (ramese), which led to similar words in all the Scandinavian languages. And in Old English, when you wanted to pluralize some words, you didn’t add -s, you added -en. That formation isn’t productive anymore (nobody’s going around talking about “laptopen” and “iPaden”), but it’s how we got words like “oxen” and “children.” So hramsa turned into hramsen, which then led to the same plant being called both “rams” and “ramson,” with a double-plural “ramsons” thrown in sometimes for good measure.

Then, just for ease of pronunciation, people started popping a “p” in there, making “ramps.” This happens sometimes (we added an “n” to “passenger” and “messenger” from the French passager and messager, just because we felt like it), and probably just came from generations of little kids deciding that “ramps” was easier to say than “rams” (next up: spaghetti-pasketti). But, like “ramson” and “ramsons” before it, somewhere along the way we forgot that “rams” was actually the singular, and started calling a lonely “ramps” a “ramp.”

Interesting! Where Can I Buy Some?

I know a lot of you guys are waiting for larger ramps and now is the time to order those. They have several inches of green leaves on them and will be growing quickly this week. If you want larger ramps and you order now, your order will be shipped on 4-16-2018.

Ingredients

8 oz. ramps, trimmed

1⁄2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Kosher salt

3⁄4 cup rice vinegar

1⁄4 cup honey

Coarsely ground black pepper

Instructions

Light a grill. In a large bowl, toss the ramps with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with salt. Arrange the ramps on the grill, and cook, turning, until lightly charred, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the ramps to a glass pint jar, folding them to fit inside, if necessary.

In a 2-qt. saucepan, combine the vinegar with the honey and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until reduced by one-third, about 5 minutes. Pour the vinegar over the ramps along with the remaining 1⁄2 cup olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Seal the jar and let stand until completely cool before serving. Refrigerate for up to 2 months.

Right now, my favorite combination is ramps and eggs, a particularly satisfying pairing. Sizzled in a little butter, ramps make stellar scrambled eggs, and for not much more effort, a spectacular cheese omelet.

INGREDIENTS

4 large eggs

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup chopped ramps

>1 ounce Gruyère, grated

PREPARATION

Step 1
Crack the eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper and beat lightly with a fork.

Step 2
Heat an omelet pan over medium heat and add the butter. When butter begins to sizzle, add the ramps and cook for 30 seconds or so, until softened. Pour in the eggs and stir to incorporate ramps. As the eggs begin to set, tilt the pan and lift the edges of the omelet to allow any uncooked egg to settle to the bottom of the pan. Cook for no more than a minute, then sprinkle the cheese over the eggs.

Step 3
With a spatula, fold the omelet into thirds. Tip the omelet onto a platter seam side down. Serve immediately.